Just watched gordon browns speech on scottish independence today. It was full of tub-thumping, old labour rhetoric. Lots of talk of the centuries old history of the union. Constant referral to the building of the welfare state [together], the NHS [together], the minimum wage [together], pension provision etc. He made it sound like the union represented some kind of socialist success story, where workers had stability, and a decent wage, and good conditions. He was constantly recalling the historical achievements of labour movement in the 20th century. Reminding wavering voters of the importance of the post war consensus and Atlees rebuilding of britain as a decent place for soldiers to come back to, in the name of socialism and worker solidarity. It was a rousing speech with Gordon bringing passion and gravitas to the debate. But he seemed to want to avoid saying something that is really the whole foundation of the Yes campaigns argument. Which is. . . Where has socialism gone ? what is the state of british socialism TODAY, after 13 years of new labour.?? To try and paint the picture that tomorrows referendum is a choice between exploitation and snake oil [the SNP] or good, reliable, old fashioned british social democracy is completely disingenuous. For a start, a vote for YES isnt a vote for the SNP. If the scottish people dont like the SNP they can vote them out. At the moment there is no support for the tories in scottland, yet that is who they are governed by. And secondly, exactly how socialist was 13 years of labour government.? Dont forget this is gordon brown, the bankers friend. He gave more freedom to the city of london than even wall street had. Back in about 2004/5, lehmann brothers wanted to launch a new derivatives product on to the market. This product was yet another way of selling repackaged debt. The american authorities wouldnt allow lehmans to do this, it was against american law. So lehmans turned their attention to this side of the atlantic and opened new headquarters in the city of london. Under gordon browns chancellorship lehmans were allowed to launch what was essentially just another way of repackaging toxic debt on to an already dysfunctional derivatives market. Gordon himself proudly opened lehmans new office in london himself. Celebrating the ingenuity of Londons financial institutions. Less than 2 years later lehmans went bust, and the whole derivatives market came crashing down. Im not suggesting that brown was responsible for the crash of 2007, but he was responsible for the distressingly lax regulation that allowed the markets to go on a feeding frenzy that we now know ended in tears. I dont remember Gordon ever apologising for that. Ot for the crippling PFI deals that allowed the spivs of wall street and the city to make a killing by selling on our hospitals to the financial markets and pocketing billions of pounds of tax payers money in the process. Leave the british people with a bum deal. Just like the recent royal mail sell-off. Or selling all our gold at knock down prices. No apology for any of it. How Brown can claim that socialism is alive in britain is beyond my comprehension. Britain is a low-wage, low-skill, service sector economy. The minimum wage has been mothballed, it should be nearer £10 an hour. There is no job security. A massive reduction in workers rights and union power. Real wages falling. Massive debt. A feral financial system fighting for the rich to get richer as the poor get poorer. Where a million people visit food banks. Where public services are farmed out to expensive and mediocre private companies. And hundreds of thousands of people abandoned without support through benefit sanctions, and the bedroom tax. Do we really want the Scots to vote more MORE of that ??? I say vote YES tomorrow.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 17:50:43 +0000
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